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Are you some-one who is outraged at the banning of the Iceland (supermarket) advert outlining the plight of orangutans in the face of increased deforestation for palm oil plantations ?

Were you even aware of the issue before seeing this advert that is now so prevalent across social media?

Now let me ask you 2 more questions ...

• Are you planning to buy anything in a  Black Friday sale event, either in a shop or online?

• Are you busy wondering what Christmas gifts to buy all your family and friends, searching online lists of what to buy a difficult teenager or elderly relative etc or grabbing the latest ideas from slick TV adverts?

It is all very well to be angry at deforestation for palm oil plantations but each and every one of us is a part of the problem through our insatiable appetite to buy more and more things, many of which we don't actually need and many of which can be directly linked to deforestation.

Quote from WWF Global:

What is causing forest conversion?

• Rising demand for soy, palm oil, cocoa and coffee is translating into expanding plantations for these crops worldwide. Many of us unwittingly contribute to forest conversion in our consumption of everyday products. For example, palm oil is used to make a whole range of cosmetics, detergents and food products including shower gel, margarine, and ice cream. Soy beans are used to make cooking oils, bread, puddings and sweets and are used in the manufacture of paints, adhesives, fertilizer and insect sprays. And for paper products, pulpwood plantations clear acres of forest to satisfy demand. This human 'footprint' on the Earth shows how our behavior in one part of the world can have negative impact on tropical forests and the people living in other part of world.

Rain forests are not only being cleared for palm oil plantations.  It is used to grow things that we all buy on a regular basis.  Then along comes Black Friday with its associated frenzy of consumerism and for me it encapsulates everything that is so wrong with our consumer led society.  Leather goods, spice racks, bags of nutty sweets, new clothes and toiletry packs, the list goes on and on - we may buy them and think we are doing so well because they are palm oil free but in reality many can be directly linked to deforestation.  We may not actually have taken the chainsaw, ourselves, to the rain forest but we are all responsible for the loss of Rang-Tan's home.  We could plead ignorance (fair to a point) and we could say we had no choice but in truth we do have a choice. The choice to reject a culture of "Stuff".  It is not possible in either the short or medium term to put back the forests that have been cleared but we can strive to prevent further deforestation.  Now is the time to accept that we must all make some big changes to the way we lead our lives.  Changes that mean:

• we must reject a lot more than just palm oil.
• we move away from buying single use products and things we don't need.
• we must question the effect our purchases have on the environment
•  we must actually buy a whole lot less of everything and that what we do buy may be more expensive .... but better quality and longer lasting ie sustainable.

Advertisers would have us think happiness is born out of shopping carts full of the supposed best new products promoted as the best thing to make your life more convenient, the latest fashion, the newest phone or some fancy foodstuff from far flung places.  May I beg to differ and say it probably isn't.  Short term happiness perhaps. Long term? Don't think so. So before you grab those so called bargains on Black Friday or panic buy online before the last delivery day before Christmas can I ask you to spend 3½ minutes watching this video:



And if you agree with its message, please share the video or this post.  It will be more than orangutans who will thank you. It will be your children and their children ... and every other creature on our beautiful planet.  Maybe together we can change the fact that on Instagram #buy appears almost 6 million times but #buyless is only there 25,000 times.  Be a part of the #BuyLess culture.

Supermarkets ore often synonymous with large amounts of plastic. Not only are many of the products on their shelves sold in single use plastic but much of this produce will also arrive at the supermarket on trays wrapped in plastic that are on pallets that are further wrapped in plastic.  Now in an ideal world all consumers would turn their back on these plastic producing supermarkets who would then be forced to change their ways if they were to survive.  But we do not live in an ideal world so what can we do right now to reduce how much plastic we buy?  How can we wean ourselves off supermarket plastic?

12 ways to wean yourself off supermarket plastic

1.  Use your own shopping bags and not just at the till. Invest in some reusable produce bags and use those in the fresh produce section.

2.  Do not shop online where you cannot see how much plastic you are buying.  If you do shop online does your supermarket offer a "no plastic shopping bags" option?

3.  If you do end up using or getting plastic bags, reuse them as many times as you can e.g. to freeze food, as bin liners etc - anything where you might otherwise have used a new plastic bag.

4.  Ask if the butcher/deli will put food in your own containers - many can tare the weight of your pot easily.  Morrisons are now promoting this but if your supermarket butcher says no then go higher and speak to the manager.

5.  Make your own meals rather than buying ready made - it is often easier to get ingredients without plastic than ready made meals, especially if your supermarket has a bulk buy section:

6.  Some supermarkets now have products in bulk buy free flow containers so use these and if the bags they supply have a plastic strip in them then take your own.

7.  Switch to brands that not wrapped in plastic - I now but crème fraîche in glass jars, pasta in cardboard boxes etc.

8.  If a multi pack is wrapped in plastic either search out a brand wrapped in cardboard or buy the product individually without the plastic wrapping.

9.  Look for alternatives that have less plastic - for example many tea bags contain plastic but loose tea does not so even if both come in a box over wrapped in plastic loose tea will have less overall plastic.  Switch from frozen veg etc to fresh.  Some biscuits have a lot less plastic packaging than others.  You might already be good at checking product prices or ingredients - now become a savvy anti-plastic shopper too!

10.  Switch to the milkman - even if you only do this for just one delivery a week you are reducing your plastic intake.

11.  If you can only get a product in plastic go for largest possible packet to reduce amount of plastic per kg or litre of product.

12.  Alternatively if you cannot find a plastic free alternative then try to buy that product less.  If you normally get it every week try every other week and go for something totally different in between.  I love cream cheese but can only get that in a plastic tub so I instead of buying one small tub every week I buy one bigger tub every few weeks and in between eat other cheese products that are plastic free.

But what about when there really are no alternatives?

Then this is time to put some pressure on supermarkets to find and offer alternatives:

Contact the supermarket and say why you are no longer buying products in plastic or buying less of them.  You can both email and write to them and ask them on social media.  Name and shame supermarkets on social media when they excessively use plastic. The more people who do this the greater the pressure we can exert to see the change we desire and that our planet needs.  But on the other hand we also need to applaud supermarkets when they make genuine positive steps to reduce plastic. 

Reducing how much plastic is on supermarket shelves must be led by both the supermarkets and the consumer.   Consumers need to keep up the pressure on supermarkets to bring about change and at the same time they need to buy these plastic free products.  Sometimes they may be more expensive and for some people this will genuinely be hard.  For many, though, it is not impossible and can be offset by other green steps such as reducing food waste, growing a few of your own vegetables, not buying so many other unnecessary consumer goods, lowering energy bills, reducing unnecessary car journeys etc etc.

Have you managed to reduce how much plastic you bring home form the supermarket.  Do you have any good tips you'd like to share?

I have previously blogged about the negative impact supermarkets have on the environment - from excess packaging to selling out of season imported produce and a lot more besides, I am the first to admit I am not a lover of supermarkets.  But I am also a realist. I use supermarkets and I also know that they are not going to go away in the foreseeable future and so when this image popped up on Facebook I was really pleased.  As far as I am aware Morrisons are the first supermarket to actively encourage customers to bring their own containers when buying meat from the butcher counter.  Brilliant news.

Image from The Rubbish Diet Facebook Page

When I added a comment saying how great this was someone else commented saying that we should not be applauding Morrisons as they (and other supermarkets) are the cause of the problem.  Yes, they are a cause of many environmental problems which is exactly why they need to start to do something about it - and this is a great green step.  They may have their own business agenda behind the move but the fact is, once a scheme like this becomes mainstream it has a much greater chance of succeeding.  Look how that one episode of Blue Planet 2 brought the issue of plastic pollution into the public domain and it probably did more to raise awareness of the problem in one episode than thousands of hours of environmental campaigning from green groups could ever achieve.  Supermarkets have the same power to reach a huge audience.

Eva Katona from Captain Bobcat Blog also commenting on my own Facebook page with this comment:

I’m with you Rosie. Most people shops in supermarkets and most of them - unfortunately - don’t think about plastic wrapping or ethical sourcing and prices etc. Some people sadly have to be forced to make a change. If supermarkets join in to make a change which is in everyone’s favour on long term, everyone wins.
Also, the plastic free movement IS consumer led. It is actually a huge success story because it is working: Morrison’s is following the demand in this case. Which is fantastic I think!

Which leads me to ask, is the plastic free movement consumer led?  Looking at what people buy here in French supermarkets I could easily doubt that and it is rare to see a shopping cart without a mountain of plastic inside.  BUT, is this because they are unaware/don't care or is it because alternatives are not available?  The plastic I bring home is because I cannot buy an alternative but am I in the majority or the minority by trying to avoid plastic?

In an ideal world we would all shop locally buying local produce in plastic free packaging. But that world does not exist and in the meantime we need to get the main problem creators on board and offering viable green alternatives.

So should Morrisons be applauded for promoting a scheme to bring your own containers to the meat counter?  What do you think?

This image turned up on my Facebook timeline this morning.  I am sure it brought a smile to a good few people, especially if they had managed to rush to the shops before the bad weather hit and stocked up of loads of bread.  However when a friend posted on Facebook that they were baking bread, he wondered how many people were also doing this and how many do not know how to bake bread.

Image from Leamington Spa Courier

Loss of basic skills is something I have been mulling over for a while triggered by something else that popped up on social media.  Maybe you have seen this, or other similar "Never have I ever" type memes, where you get one point for each item you have NOT done.  I have seen ones for gardeners, parents and then this one for DIYers/self sufficiency advocates:  Do drop  me a comment with your score!


However there is a more serious note to both the photo and the Never Have I Ever mere.  We are fast losing vital skills and by doing so we are becoming dependent on some-on else for the basics we need in our lives.  Once we lose the knowledge needed to grow or cook our own food, make or mend our clothes etc then we leave ourselves vulnerable to having to buy from large organisations whose environmental records may be far from ideal.

You might argue that you could buy from smaller companies but many of these are in fact owned by large multinationals.  Look at this page to see just how many food companies are in fact owned by Monsanto.

Do you really want to be buying food from a company that promotes and produces vast quantities of GM crops and pesticides?

And once just a few companies dominate the market then they are given an almost free hand to do what they want.  As consumers our choices will become more and more limited and our ability to control what we eat, clothe ourselves in or have in our houses will be in the hands of just a few mega companies. 

So whilst I appreciate not everyone can keep chickens, milk a goat or ride in the back of a pick up, there are a lot of basic skills in the Never Have I ever meme that we really should not be losing.  If you can grown a few vegetables you can feed yourself organically and without plastic packaging.  If you can sew or mend you don't need to be buying yet more cheap throw away clothing.  If you can mend things think how much stuff you can stop going into landfill.  If you know how to forage for blackberries you can make your own jam and if you can make bread, the next time you get snowed in you won't be running out of this basic supply.  We need to pass the skills we have onto the next generation.  We need to teach ourselves those skills we have lost and we need to get basic skills like cooking, sewing, DIY and gardening back on the school curriculum.

Oh and my score?  Two!  (So long as I am allowed milking a sheep, rather than a goat!)
But do you know which two I have never done? 

And what is your score?  Have you got skills you can pass on to others?

If the advertisers and big manufacturers were to have their way we would buy so much stuff for Christmas we'd have to starve for the rest of the year.  Well I have a message for big business.  There is another way.  A green way that does not mean Christmas is stuffed full of plastic, packaging, waste and debt.  Christmas can be just as fun, and above all better for the planet if we step off the treadmill of rampant commercialism and make Christmas altogether more sustainable.  In my previous blog post I wrote about general ways to celebrate a green Christmas and now I give you the low down on eco-present giving.

Green Christmas Present Ideas

 

Home-made stuff

• Bath bombs and other home-made toiletries
• Sloe Gin etc
• Preserves - jam, chutney etc
• Cake mix in a large jar
• Hand-made/knitted/crocheted clothes
• Any craft item you are a dab hand at making

Mason/large jar gifts

Large jars make a great receptacle for gifts such as:

• Biscuit mixes
• Bird seed
• Bath salts
• Sweets
• Home-made muesli
• Vanilla sugar
• Home made mulled wine sachets
• Home-made herb sachets 
• Selection of saved seeds
• Selection of promises or tokens 

Generally

• Before buying new see what you can buy in second hand shops
• Give experiences not gifts - what about some horse riding lessons or tickets to the local theatre?
• Offer your time to busy people - prepare dinner for them or babysit parents so they can have a night out
• Offer to teach some-one a new skill
• Buy useful presents - what about a bag for life or a safety razor? 
• Ask people what they want rather than trying to second guess and getting them something they don't need or want
• Buy a board game that the whole family can play together
• Give gift tokens 
• Give subscriptions to a local garden, library etc
• If you do buy new make it as local, organic, ethical, fair trade, sustainable, non-polluting as possible.  Oh and keep it palm oil free - check those labels.

The examples above have been fairly generic - but these 2 examples from Instagram and Facebook are more specific: 

Buy some poo!  

This one came from Lorraine (@the_uncheshire_wife on Instagram)

"The most talked about present we got our teen was the Oxfam Unwrapped gift of a ‘pile of poo’ which helps a family invest in eco friendly farming with manure & organic fertiliser 👍 He told all his friends he got a ‘pile of poo’. For Christmas 😂"

Organise a present share

I love this idea from Carol Morhman on the Make do and Mend Facebook Group

"We have a large family. We buy gifts for the children under ten (no more than $10). The rest of us give recycled presents. Wrap them in used paper or gift bags, put them all in a pile, draw numbers and have a ball laughing over what we get. (Grandma who's 80 gets a 16 lb. Bowling ball). People can then trade with each other."

Wrapping those presents

You don't need to buy oodles of new wrapping paper etc when there are plenty of green alternatives available:

• Use old cards to make gift tags
• Open presents carefully and re-use the paper next year
• Use brown paper or newspaper
• See if your local second hand shop has old maps and use these
• You can always decorate brown paper with potato prints 
• Use small pieces of greenery or dried herb branches to decorate presents
• Wrap presents in part of the present itself ie a tea towel or scarf and tie with a bungee cord
• Reuse boxes you have and save up small items for decoration through the year
• If giving several smaller gifts you can put them in a hamper.  Search for suitable baskets in second hand shops and use shredded paper for packing.

The truth is we will nearly all end up buying some new things at Christmas.  However if we all took the message below on board our buying power could help a lot of local families rather than simply lining the pockets of big business:




For even more inspiration on presents you can give that the planet will thank you for have a look at these blog posts:

 From Monsoon of Random

Facebook Groups
Zero Waste Heroes!
A Make Do and Mend Life

From Feathers in the Wood
Adorable Mini Christmas Garden Gifts

I hope you can find some green inspiration from here - perhaps you have some ideas I could add.  Do let me know in a comment and above all have a

"Buy Organic and save the Planet" could well be the logo of a company selling organic products and in many ways it rings true.  With a world of only organic agriculture we could be rid of so many harmful chemicals that kill more than the pests and weeds they are designed to wipe out.  We would say goodbye to genetically modified crops and the world's soil would be in a much better state.  But is organic always the right choice?  Are there actually times when you would be better off not choosing the organic option?  Was this "Simply Good and Organic" muesli I bought really a good environmental choice?

When organic may not be the best choice

When organic foods are plastic wrapped

We all know how bad plastic is for the environment with trillions of particles of microplastic now polluting the planet so should you really be adding to that load even if the product inside the plastic wrapping is organic?

When organic foods are flown in from afar

It is a conundrum that I suspect many a person who aims to buy organic will have grappled with.  Is it better to buy an organic product that was grown on the other side of the world and no doubt flown in or buy a local non-organic one?  Which neatly leads on to ...

When organic foods are not seasonal

It goes without saying that if the produce you are buying is not is season ie tomatoes in winter then it will either have been flown from far away or grown in vast heated greenhouses in somewhere like Spain.  The article below from Eco Watch exposes the extent of the spread of greenhouses in Spain and you can be sure that some will be growing your organic foods:

Greenhouses cover every square inch of land, more than 165 square miles of land around Almeria, Spain. Image from EcoWatch

When organic foods are heavily processed

Once you start processing food you start adding all sorts of unknowns to it.  Are all the ingredients necessary and what effects do they have on you?  Are they all organic, how much energy is needed to process the food, how much packaging does it now come in and how far (food miles) have all the ingredients contained in it travelled?  These are all unknown and could all reduce how environmentally friendly the food is.  And what about ...

When organic foods are contain palm oil  

We all know the devastating effects palm oil plantations are having on the rain forests of Asia and South America and the animals and plants that used to live there.  Manufacturers may say their palm oil is sustainable (what exactly does that mean anyway?) but the production of all palm oil goes far beyond just destroying habitats.  The working conditions of those harvesting and processing the crops is often extremely poor with no health care in place and workers are paid very low wages.  For the consumer, palm oil is far from a healthy product being high in saturated fats.  So why do organic producers even use it in their products?  Simply because it is the cheapest fat currently available.  For more details on palm oil have a read of these articles:

Not all organic standards are the same for all countries

Quote from Wikipedia on international organic standards:

"In some countries, organic standards are formulated and overseen by the government. The United States, the European Union, Canada and Japan have comprehensive organic legislation, and the term "organic" may be used only by certified producers. Being able to put the word "organic" on a food product is a valuable marketing advantage in today's consumer market, but does not guarantee the product is legitimately organic. Certification is intended to protect consumers from misuse of the term, and make buying organics easy. However, the organic labelling made possible by certification itself usually requires explanation. In countries without organic laws, government guidelines may or may not exist, while certification is handled by non-profit organizations and private companies."

So it is quite possible the so called organic product you are buying is not quite as organic as you thought.

When you drive miles just to buy a few organic items

If you are lucky enough to have organic produce close to you that is great but is it really a good idea to drive miles to get your organic foods, thus further polluting the environment? 

Do you really need it?

Finally, do you really need that food or are you buying it because it is organic and so you feel you are helping the planet and keeping yourself healthy in the process?  Have you been sucked in by some clever advertising but bought something that you either didn't need or could just have easily made yourself without the wrapping, industrial processing, unknown extra ingredients, food miles etc etc?  How much organic food still gets wasted because consumers buy more than they need?

So what of that packet of muesli?  I bought it as I needed something I knew my boys would eat for breakfast when they have to leave so early to get to school.  I normally make something they like but knew on this occasion I was short of time.  So I ended up buying muesli that contained processed (air dried) fruits, palm oil and glucose syrup, which came in a plastic bag and had ingredients in it from who knows where.  In my opinion, I do not think that constitutes a product that should be called "Simply Good and Organic."

You might think from reading this post that I am anti organic and that is simply not true.  I am, however, against organic food when a non organic alternative might have less of a negative impact on our environment.  Yes, buy organic but be careful in your choice.  Manufacturers want us to buy their products and they are not averse to a bit of greenwash.  Let's not fall for this any more.  Where possible let's ...

• Choose organic foods that are free from packaging 
• Choose local and in season organic foods
• Choose non processed organic foods and cook from scratch yourself when you can
• Avoid organic foods that contain palm oil
• Learn more about organic standards
• Consider buying fair trade products
• Buy locally 
• Buy what you need, not what manufacturers tell you you need!

Postscript - after a comment about orgainc palm oil I have expanded on the subject in this blog post:

Why I will not buy organic food that contains palm oil

I am not a vegan?

But what about all those vegan foods that are imported from the other side of the world.  Maybe I should only ...

Shop Locally?

But what if I can only get non organic produce or factor farmed meat locally.  I need to ...

Only Eat Organic

But you know what?  My organic shop sells a lot of processed foods, non local foods and those made with palm oil.  So let's go ...

Palm Oil Free

Looking good until you realise that the only palm oil free peanut butter you can buy comes in a plastic jar.  So the answer must be to ...

Go Zero-Waste

Sounds great until I tell you that the nearest bulk store for me is miles away without any public transport so think of all that fuel I'd use to get there.  So I need to become ...

Self Sufficient

Now in fairness I do grow a lot of my own produce.  And so it is local .... and organic ... and palm oil free and very low on waste.  BUT, I raise and eat my own animals (and use their manure to fertilise the soil) so I am well and truly not a vegan which takes me neatly back to the start of this post.





I have always done the best that I can to try and be green.  But I also know that I would need to do a lot more to really reduce down my carbon footprint.  Take transport.  I live in the middle of the countryside which means I can have my smallholding but I have to drive to get to most places.  I also drive far more than I would like taking the boys to and from sports training most evenings ... but I have 2 very fit and healthy boys and I am not about to say to them that they cannot go to their chosen sports as I use too much fuel to get them there.  We car share when we can, double up doing other jobs at the same time or hang around town rather than coming home and going back an hour and a half later to get them.  But the bottom line is I use the car far more than I would like to.

There have been lots of other instances too, when I have been reminded yet again how difficult it is to be totally green.  Leta, who blogs at Attachment Mummy, mentioned the palm oil free peanut butter in plastic pots issue whilst another comment on this blog pointed out that the non plastic bags that French supermarkets offer for loose produce are probably made from GM maize which is grown with high levels of pesticides applied.  I see recipes inspiring us to cook with fresh ingredients but with produce that is not in season together.  Parsnip and courgette curry will need one or other of the main ingredients to be imported. I own cats which some say is far from green ... but they keep my rodent population down without the need for poisons.  I got some figs from the market today but whilst I popped them into my own bag, they came out of a box lined with a plastic tray. I could go on but you get the picture.

Everyone has a negative impact on the planet. Every action we take, whether it be perceived as green or otherwise has all sorts of hidden effects we cannot always calculate.  However this does not mean we should do nothing to help and each and every positive step we take is a huge step in the right direction.  There are hundreds of pages written about ways to be green - take my blog post on 100 ways to reduce plastic - these are all great examples but it is impossible for everyone to follow all these 100 ideas all the time.

What it boils down to is making the best green decisions you can for you and your family situation.    However if you start by applying the following 8 principles to the way you live your life you may well find you can make a great deal more progress than you ever thought possible:

• Consume less - do you actually need what ever it is you are about to add to your real or virtual shopping basket? 
• Question everything - do not believe the greenwash that manufacturers would have us all believe, read labels, research things, listen to experts.
• Be prepared to make mistakes and re-evaluate
• Be prepared to be different
• Inspire others with your achievements and help them to find green solutions that work for them
• Support others to make changes
• Accept your limitations but also ...
• Push yourself to be the change. 

Our strength lies in our collective ability to make a difference.  Not accepting one straw in a drink won't change the world but refusing, explaining why and sharing knowledge will see the ripple effect starting to work.  Not long ago no baby was kept dry with disposable nappies but over a very short period of time the manufacturers changed the attitude of western parents.  If it can be changed one way it can be changed back again.

Are you with me?  Could you apply these 8 principles to your life?  Have you any others to add? Let's throw those stones and let's see those ripples growww.